


What Ifs

by Jameva



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Chocobos, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 09:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18825988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jameva/pseuds/Jameva
Summary: Ignis almost never wondered what his life could have been like under different circumstances. He could not afford that luxury.





	What Ifs

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as me having this image stuck in my brain and writing it out. It evolved.
> 
> There are chocobos.

The sun had set, taking the heat along for the night. Ignis added an extra layer before making his way beyond the dimmed embers to the small glow of the camping lamp. It was barely visible through the fuzz of feather tips. 

 

Ignis let his shoes scuff the bare rock by habit, but he knew Gladio had nonetheless felt him coming. 

 

“You’re early,” Gladio rumbled, low and even. The lamp was so low his profile was barely visible. Any brighter and it would ruin his night vision. Ignis knew he kept it on for his chocobo’s benefit. She spooked easily at night. 

 

“Am I? I’m afraid my watch broke during the last skirmish,” Ignis said as he crouched down. Gladio slanted him a look. Ignis had a perfectly functioning phone. He said nothing. 

 

His chocobo, Soren, raised a bleary head. Taking offence at Ignis’ distance, she stretched her neck and managed to hook her beak in his trousers. She began pulling. Ignis could either follow along or be divested of his pants. He pushed himself back until he was cushioned by dark copper fluff. The chocobo made a crooning sound, shifted her wing a little to make him space, and resettled to sleep. 

 

“She likes you,” Gladio observed, highly amused. 

 

“Your bird likes everyone.” Ignis’ own was quite content to sleep huddled with the other two birds not too far away, a rainbow-hued mound of feathers where you only knew where one bird started and the other finished due to their different shades.

 

“She’s not mine.” There was a slight weight to Gladio’s words. Of all the people in the team to bond with these rental birds, Ignis would not have thought Gladio would be it. Prompto was over the moon about riding, of course, but the attachment was not the same. It was more excitement and less…  _ paternal.  _ The word was a novelty when applied to his partner, yet there it was. 

 

Soren’s demands constrained Ignis’ range of movements and reactivity, yet he was loath to move. It had brought him quite naturally in contact with Gladio and he radiated heat through the layers of his jacket. Conscious of his watch duty, Gladio kept his hands free and ready to react, but he shifted slightly so their sides met more fully. 

 

“Considering how much time we have been renting them, it may be a wiser investment to simply buy them.” Ignis said it with sarcasm, intending to joke. He found himself pondering the idea as soon as the words left his mouth.

 

Gladio laughed quietly. “Doubt they’d like the city life, though.”

 

City life. Would they ever know that again, he wondered. They certainly had been living wild of recent days, camping out more often than not, bathing in streams and not seeing other human beings for whole days. These hunts had sent them far, and deep. Yet their plans required funds, and so hunt they must.

 

“Perhaps that would not be so unpleasant.”

 

Now Gladio turned completely from his vigil to look at Ignis with evident surprise. “Us, country folks?”

 

A weird mood had settled on Ignis. Perhaps it was the strange sort of liberty afforded by living rough and uncertain of their next meal, or perhaps it was this enormous bird, near on half as big as the others, who insisted on mothering him like he were her chick, that allowed his thoughts to dabble in  _ what ifs _ . Ignis almost never did. He could not afford that luxury. 

 

“Under different circumstances, it may be an acceptable way of living. And I would not mean to exile ourselves, we would not need to be so far from urban centers. Just not exactly at its center.”

 

Gladio was still staring at him like he’d actually proposed abandoning their charge and eloping into the sunset. Finally he blinked and looked out into the night. Ignis could see his expression move from surprise to thoughtfulness. 

 

“It’d be alright. What would we do?” he asked, encouraging Ignis to pursue this fantasy. 

 

What would they do? Neither of them knew anything but the roles they currently held. Still, if all were possible…

 

“I believe I would teach.” It was not that far fetched of an experience for him, but attending to a multitude of different minds rather than only one, and one in a position of authority, seemed a worthwhile challenge.

 

“I could see that. You’d be the strict teacher all the kids are afraid of.”

 

Ignis pushed his glasses up and affected a severe expression. “If they apply themselves they will have no cause to fear.”

 

“ _ Terrorized.”  _ Gladio smirked and allowed one wrist to lean on Ignis’ leg. “Teachers in small places usually teach more than one subject, though.”

 

“That would suit just fine. I would have the opportunity to expand my mind as well as theirs.”

 

“What about me? What do you see me as in this little scenario?”

 

“Ranger,” Ignis replied immediately. Gladio would always need someone, something, to protect. It went beyond being raised knowing he would die protecting another. It was in his very marrow. Without someone to safeguard, he would wither into bitterness and anger. “Or hunter if you prefer, however smaller settlements always need a minimum of protection against more aggressive wildlife. Search and rescue, patrols, that sort of thing.” Ignis reached to the side and restored a few feathers to their proper alignment. “Soren would be ideal; monsters rarely keep to roads.”

 

“I guess I could work with that.” Gladio patted his bird affectionately. “There are worse things than spending your day with this gal and if I can also keep swinging my sword, all’s good.”

 

Despite being mostly asleep, Soren crooned in response. Ignis sighed and began planning. 

 

“It would be far less eventful of a life.”

 

“What, chasing monsters? Nothing boring about that. And I hope you don’t think teaching kids is uneventful because man, I think you’re in for a surprise.”

 

He shook his head. “There would be less people. Less attractions, events.”

 

This time Gladio put his hand on the back of Ignis’ neck and pressed warmly. “You said we wouldn’t be super remote, no? Besides, that’s all fun, but it’s not all life’s about.”

 

Ignis felt warm and comfortable in ways that had nothing to do with the chocobo’s body heat. 

 

“Yes, well, I do expect you to return from your expeditions with culinary ingredients. There will be no such excuses as lack of proper conservation methods, or lack of storage, or Soren thinks it stinks.”

 

Gladio guffawed quietly. All of the above had happened at some point or the other. Ignis was still particularly cross about the Soren incident. 

 

“You’ve got it all figured out, huh?” Gladio said, removing his hand and nudging his shoulder with his.

 

It would be disarmingly easy to forget about everything. So very, very easy. Ignis never would have thought himself capable of even joking about not being Noctis’ retainer, of shedding his duty and the rigidity of his life. It scared him. Things had changed with Gladio; the man’s simple presence opened doors in his head he did not know were there. 

 

Escape was not in his nature, however, and he shut the door very firmly on the entire silly notion. 

 

“It’s all nonsense, of course.”

 

Gladio caught the shift in his mood. “You’re a sarcastic bastard, but you don’t do nonsense,” he said, serious. Ignis arched an eyebrow but Gladio ignored it. “It’s ok to talk like this. Don’t you think Noctis wonders what his life would be like if he wasn’t the prince? Looking at what else is out there doesn’t mean you  _ want  _ it. It just makes you normal.”

 

Ignis smiled, a small smile that he only ever took out for Gladio. Diverting his attention for just a moment, Gladio leaned forward and kissed Ignis. It was warm and simple, non erotic, a statement of commitment and love stronger than words could ever hope to express.

 

“I’ll never betray my duty.” As Ignis knew and loved him for. “But just so you know, if I had the option to settle down and become a wheat-toting farmer, I’d do it with you.”

 

Ignis sniffed disparagingly. Something light had bloomed in his chest. “I believe I made you out to be much cooler than that.”

 

Gladio raised his eyebrows, his look taking on an altogether less innocent light. “I noticed. I get the feeling there's a kink in there somewhere. Want to test it out?” He was practically purring on the last and Ignis admitted that it was quite effective. He hooked Gladio’s shirt and pulled him in for a kiss somewhat more energetic than the previous.

 

“Yes, I most certainly would,” he said simply, his voice that deeper velvet, rolling his accent as strong as it would go on those few syllables because  _ that _ was one of Gladio’s kinks. 

 

He allowed another kiss, enjoying how Gladio’s body had entirely shifted in language at just those words, then broke off suddenly. Gladio let out a discontented “hey!”.

 

“I doubt either of us would enjoy being caught by surprise by a pack of voretooths.” Gladio rolled his eyes at this poor estimate of their abilities but allowed the distraction. “And you need rest if you are to be of any use at all to us tomorrow.”

 

This time he received a flat stare. “You do know the Crownsguard have sleep deprivation training?”

 

“Quite.”

 

Gladio sighed very dramatically but relented, having some measure of good sense. “Alright then, you’re up. Don't let anything eat us in our sleep.”

 

“I shall endeavor to do so,” Ignis replied dryly.

 

Gladio allowed himself one last peck before unfolding from his bird’s side as smoothly as if he had not been near immobile for hours. Soren stirred again, kwehing at him in a fashion that sounded terribly like a question.

 

“It’s ok. You stay with Iggy, girl. Keep him company.”

 

Ignis did not expect Soren to raise her head, gargle something of a response, fluff her feathers and shift so that Ignis was fully at her center. She curved her neck and nibbled at his hair for a moment before settling satisfactorily. Ignis sat utterly dumbfounded.

 

“Did she just… preen me?”

 

Gladio looked like he was about to break from not laughing out loud.

 

“Yeah, she does it to me too sometimes. I told you she likes you. Now you’re one of hers.” The grin on his face could only be described as shit eating.

 

“I-" Words did not often fail Ignis. The intelligence this bird displayed, both intellectual and emotional, left him as such. “I see,” he settled lamely for.

 

“Just don't let the lamp go out. Night, Iggy.”

 

“Good night.”

 

Ignis was left sitting watch wrapped in a warm cloud of feathers, able to apply all of his skills to devising a plan to keep this overly affectious mother hen with Gladio.


End file.
